Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2306 Country Talk ([-])

"Why is the saury so small this year?" On June 1696, 6, in a fishing pier in Dabo Port, a potbellied businessman asked with a frown as he looked at the catches of different sizes in the cabin.

"Help me, Boss Song, this is the spring saury from Taiwan Island. If you want a big one, you have to go to the north to catch the autumn saury. It's not the time yet." The boss of the boat was smoking a heavy Ningbo saury with a Universe brand cigarette in his mouth. said the accent.He is not worried at all that the batch of fish in the cabin cannot be sold. As the largest city under the jurisdiction of the Blackwater Management Committee, Dabo Port, with more than [-] urban residents, still has a strong consumption capacity, not to mention the surrounding towns and towns further north. Nanku County and other places are densely populated granaries. The people are not poor and consume a lot of seafood every year.

Several boatmen who watched the excitement around heard this and laughed.They had beer bottles in hand, and they were drinking and watching jokes.These people are basically from the same hometown, even if they are not all from Ningshao, most of them are from Zhejiang—such as Wentai people from the Ming puppet regime in the south—has long been dissatisfied with the fishery market controlled by the Shandong guys. Not harmonious.

Regional conflicts have been a chronic disease in China since ancient times.Especially in this era, the population flow is insufficient, people's concept of hometown and province nationality is serious, and they are more vigilant against outsiders.Most of the early immigrants in Sakhalin Island were fleeing refugees from Deng, Lai, Qing, and Jizhu prefectures in Shandong. They took the first-mover advantage and took root here for many years, controlling most of the social resources.The neighboring island of Hokkaido is also very similar. The local immigrants from Qingzhou came first, and there were a lot of them, so they gained the upper hand.In this case, the life of the Zhejiang immigrants later was naturally not very easy. Although they were more savvy, they were still a bit difficult under the oppressive suppression.

Just like the Dabo port in front of you, seven of the ten largest seafood wholesalers are from Shandong. If the fish caught by Zhejiang fishermen don’t want to rot, they can only be sold to them. Naturally, a lot of resentment has accumulated over time. .

"Hmph! I don't have the same knowledge as you southern barbarians." The fat man probably rarely came to the fish market. After making a joke, his face immediately flushed, and he hated to rest in the tea shop beside him.

Next to the tea shop are two huge industrial windmills, creaking and spinning under the strong sea breeze, driving the stone mill to grind bags of wheat into flour.In fact, industrial windmills have not been very popular in the past ten years, because of their inherent flaws—the wind is variable, sometimes big and sometimes small—many factories have begun to use old-style steam engines that have been eliminated locally.The maintenance of these power equipment is not bad, and after being sold, there is a special factory to renovate it, and basically it can be used for a few more years.Most importantly, because it is outdated second-hand equipment, the price is relatively cheap, so it is very popular.

But that's not to say there's no market for industrial windmills.In fact, industrial windmills are still widely used in islands and coastal areas because of the free resource of endless wind power.Moreover, high-quality mopan stones are produced locally. Both rice mills and noodle mills use the combination of industrial windmills and mopan stones on a large scale to produce food at low cost.The only shortcoming is probably that the wind force varies in size and is unpredictable, resulting in frequent damage to mechanical parts and varying output power.

But in any case, from a long-term trend, industrial windmills will definitely be gradually eliminated.Sakhalin Island has a large coal output and a good industrial foundation. There is no obstacle to using steam power, and it will basically be gradually replaced in the future.

After resting in the tea shed for a while, the manager under him had already negotiated the purchase price with the gang of ship bosses, bought all the caught saury, and then transported them to the processing plant near the wharf.Over there, these catches will be canned by the processing factory—half in glass cans (locally produced), and half in tinplate cans (imported from the local area) and will be slowly put on the market in the future to sell back.

Only about one-third of the workers in the processing plant are from the local area, and the other two-thirds are from North Korea.These North Korean laborers are very cheap. They only need to pay two yuan a month and some rice and pickles, and they can work without complaint.As for the local workers, although they do not need to pay for food, five yuan a month is indispensable. If any production is completed at the end of the month, a bonus of one yuan will be paid. This expense is indeed not small.

But recently, the Black Water Management Committee is strictly investigating North Koreans working illegally.Because the higher-ups discovered that after working here for a period of time, many North Koreans gradually took over their families, which led to an increase in the proportion of local North Koreans, which made them very worried.After all, North Koreans have their own country and a well-established civilization, and they are united and exclusive, making it difficult to assimilate.In addition, their country is very close to here, and the domestic population is more than 700 million. The potential cannot be underestimated. Therefore, both the Heishui Management Committee and the Manchurian Pioneering Team strictly prohibit North Koreans from settling here, that is, short-term work is allowed, but Never grant household registration to limit the spread of North Koreans in Northeast Asia.

As soon as this policy came out, the factory owners naturally complained.But there is no way. The higher-ups feel that although the Korean Kingdom is their own puppet, this nation is really unreliable. Historically, it has very strong ambitions for expansion. In the case of a city dominated by people, it will be very troublesome to manage in the future.And this point has also been supported by the local people, so it has been resolutely implemented, requiring all localities to strictly investigate North Koreans who illegally smuggled and settled down.

The factory owners had no choice but to cooperate.However, some people are still not convinced, clamoring to invest and build factories in the south, where there are more people and cheaper wages.However, if the main engine factory is determined not to relocate, what can these supporting manufacturers do?Light industry is possible, but there are a lot of light industries in Ningshao and Denglai. If you go there, you will be able to compete with others?I'm afraid not necessarily!Therefore, in the end, all the flags and flags were silent, and the time was slowly waiting.

Here is an extra word.Originally, Bai Yutang, director of the Heishui Management Committee, planned to invest in the establishment of heavy industry enterprises such as steel and machinery in Denglai and Ningshao areas, in order to save the heavy industry enterprises in Heishui area that were in a disadvantageous situation due to the outflow of talents and funds.Unexpectedly, the local Ministry of Industry and Commerce actually sent an inspection team, but after some investigation, they believed that the iron and steel smelting, coal mining, mechanical processing, shipbuilding, military industry and other industries in the area under the jurisdiction of the Heishui Management Committee were not unsustainable.Although there is a continuous loss of talent and capital flowing to warmer places, these companies have not lost money after all and can continue to survive.

To this end, they gave suggestions, that is, to strengthen vocational education and train more local talents to supplement the gap caused by the loss of personnel.According to the plan, the local Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce jointly invested 10 yuan, and the Heishui Management Committee invested 5 yuan to establish a Heishui Vocational and Technical College in Nanku County, which specializes in cultivating various types of science and engineering talents and conducting high-standard vocational skills. educate.

In addition, improving the treatment of local heavy industry personnel is also on the agenda. In principle, the average salary increase is 20%, and the technical backbone can be raised a little bit more, so as to retain talents as much as possible.The inspection team also took into account the difficulties in business operations that may be caused by the salary increase. For this reason, they forced the Kingdom of Korea to sign an agreement on Ganghwa Island to implement a strict import quota system for coal, building materials, and pig iron produced by North Korea. Alleviate the impact of these low-priced North Korean goods on the markets of the five Far Eastern domains, and increase profits for Heishui's own enterprises.

With this set of punches, I believe that Heishui's steel, coal, shipbuilding, machinery, building materials and other industries should be able to breathe a sigh of relief.Bai Yutang naturally had no objection to this, he readily gave up his original plan and agreed to the inspection team's suggestion.Moreover, the inspection team also gave him a sweetener, that is, the local government intends to help Sakhalin Island establish a soda ash production line.This production line was dismantled from the North Chemical Factory in Ping'an County. They have already eliminated this old production line that is unsafe, unhealthy, and unenvironmental. Responsible for disassembly, transportation and subsequent installation and commissioning at your own expense.

What else is Bai Yutang dissatisfied about?Soda ash is a commodity that is in high demand in the Far East, where the chemical industry is almost zero. Which industries do not use it, such as glass, textiles, steelmaking, building materials, soap, printing and dyeing, and military industry?The demand is very large.In the past, they relied on imported natural soda ash from salt lakes, but now they can produce it themselves, so they are naturally very happy.This is a big source of income. For the Heishui Management Committee, which needs to import a large amount of grains, fruits, spices, tea, coffee, medicinal materials, salt and other daily necessities, it is an important means of balancing trade expenditures, and it is the central government's care. save them from financial distress.

Of course, as mentioned above, in order to solve the poor income and expenditure situation of the Heishui Management Committee, in addition to relying on exporting heavy industrial products, one of the ways is to develop some light industries based on local advantages.The seafood processing factory of this fat businessman's family is a key industry. The fishery resources near Sakhalin Island are too rich, and it is unforgivable not to use it.There are more than 1000 rivers on this island, and there are a large number of freshwater fish. The most famous sturgeons and sturgeons are produced in a large amount, and the meat is tender, and the market in the south is not small.It's a pity that southerners are not used to eating caviar, otherwise it would be a lucrative industry.

The situation of sea fish is not much more.The Qiandao Islands fishing ground is right next to it. The confluence of cold and warm currents has created the largest fishing ground in the world. It is a pity that there are few people here and there are not enough fish caught, otherwise it can be developed into the largest industry.In addition, the deer antler, ginseng, and fur industries also need to increase investment. The whale product industry has developed well in recent years, but it is also limited by manpower issues and has not made further breakthroughs. Large-scale industrial papermaking has begun to be put on the agenda. will be the focus of efforts.

But to say a thousand words and ten thousand, all of these need manpower.Regardless of the vast area under the jurisdiction of the Black Water Management Committee, the span is very large, from the Kamchatka Peninsula in the north to Hokkaido in the south, but these places are all deserted.Without enough people, local natural resources will simply remain dormant.So the question is, where to get people?

(End of this chapter)